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Mickelson starts his charge for the top

The world's top four are likely to do battle in 2011 © Getty Images

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The 2011 season has been biding time in the first few weeks of the year, but it cranks into life this week at the $2,700,000 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship and it could be an indicator of how things will pan out in the year ahead. Four of the top five, six of the top ten and 16 of the top 30 in the world rankings will do battle in the Emirate.

It really is a stellar cast when you throw in two-time winner of the event Paul Casey, major winners Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, as well as the Molinari brothers, Ian Poulter and a certain Rory McIlroy. The only man missing from the cast list is Tiger Woods, but such is the strength in depth and pulling power of the European Tour that the tournament will stand up to the test even without the 14-time major champion in the field.

Woods has opted to delay his 2011 debut until the Farmers Insurance Open at the end of January - handing world No. 1 Lee Westwood the chance to gain further ground. The Brit is over 1½ points clear of Woods and over two clear of Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell who are locked together in fourth. Such is the way the rankings are worked out, Westwood's lead is a substantial one and a powerful start to the year could see him take a stranglehold on the rankings. It won't be a vice-like grip that Woods had over the world of golf, but it could be that he remains at to the top of the tree for some time.

Westwood starts the season in an unfamiliar position of being the hunted rather than the hunter. He handled the situation with aplomb towards the end of last year, but he effectively has to start from scratch. Should be demonstrate the consistent nature of form from last year, his reward will be a safe perch at the top of the tree and his body is sure to have benefited from the break over the festive season. Dogged by a calf complaint in the second half of the season, Westwood admitted in November that he was still not 100 per cent and the thing he required was rest. He's had that rest now and if it has done the trick, we may well see Westwood push on and claim the one thing missing from his CV: a major win.

Mickelson has majors to his name, but the world No. 1 ranking is still missing from his CV and despite his statements to the contrary, that hurts. For the best part of a decade he failed in the big-game hunt, as Tiger proved impossible for him to track down. The 2011 season offers Mickelson some new prey to focus on and he is making an early statement of intent by heading to Abu Dhabi to open his season.

Lefty once again moved to play down the importance of the top spot, but it is something that should be taken with a pinch of salt.

"I know there is a lot of attention on the No. 1 world ranking these days but, as I've said, if I focus on winning tournaments the ranking will take care of itself," he said. "The last two winners in Abu Dhabi have done very well in the ranking, and the strength of field here is obvious, so I'm looking forward to starting the season strongly at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship."

The pressure of securing the No. 1 spot would appear to be off Mickelson's shoulders following his near misses in 2010 and with a new target to aim at in the shape of Westwood, 2011 could finally see him slip under the radar and claim the prize he craves.

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